According to CNET report, US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Tuesday approved Pfizer biontech's covid-19 vaccine was authorized for emergency use for children aged 5 to 11 , and these people were approved to receive a booster injection at least 5 months after the second dose of vaccine.
Children aged 12 and older are already eligible for a third or booster shot. They need advice from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) before booster needles begin to be promoted to younger age groups. The CDC's independent advisory committee is scheduled to hold a public meeting on Thursday, presumably to vote on whether to recommend strengthening needles.
Like the first two doses of vaccines for children aged 5 to 11, they received Pfizer booster injections at 1 / 3 the dose given to children aged 12 and over.
The FDA said the authorization was based on immune response data from ongoing randomized trials that supported the authorization of the main vaccine for young children in October. The trial assessed the antibody response of 67 children who received booster shots within 7 to 9 months after the second shot. The researchers assessed the safety of booster needles in about 400 children. The side effects of enhancers in children are similar to those common in adults, including pain, fatigue, headache and fever at the injection site.
"Although to a large extent, covid-19 is often less severe in children than in adults, more children have developed the disease and are sent to hospitals in the Omicron wave, and children may experience long-term effects, even after the initial mild illness," FDA director Dr. Robert M. California said in a statement According to a CDC report, about 75% of children in the United States have evidence of covid-19 infection after the surge in the Omicron epidemic last winter.
In recent weeks, an updated and more infectious version of Omicron has driven an increase in covid-19 cases. Since the beginning of the pandemic in early 2020, about 1 million people in the United States have died of covid-19.
Prior to this authorization, the FDA did not meet with the independent advisory committee, which the FDA usually does before authorizing covid-19 vaccine or booster injections for specific age groups. The FDA said Pfizer's emergency use authorization request "did not cause additional discussion among committee members" that had not been resolved in other discussions on covid-19 booster shots. The agency indicated that it would make the documents related to the request available on its website.
Children under the age of 5 are still not vaccinated with covid-19 vaccine. The FDA scheduled three dates next month -- June 8, 21 and 22 -- for its panel to discuss Moderna and Pfizer's vaccine authorization requests for infants and young children.
According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, about 28% of children aged 5 to 11 have completed their primary covid-19 series vaccine (two doses). About 35% of children of the same age have received one dose.